Virginia
Meet Virginia
Alexandria
The Fun Side of the Potomac
Stuff to do: A visit to Alexandria's Old
Town is great for dining and shopping, and the colonial architecture is very
pretty. There's a walking/biking trail along the Potomac that's nice for an
evening stroll. For a great view of Old Town and parts of Washington, DC, visit
the George Washington Masonic
National Memorial at the head of King
Street. You can't miss the large tower! Admission is free, and there are guided
tower tours daily at 10:00 and 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 and 3:00
p.m.
Alexandria Ghost Tour Report
If you find yourself in
Alexandria on an October evening, you might like to take a Ghost Tour. Two
different tours meet at the Ramsay House Visitors Center at King and Fairfax
Streets in Alexandria. We intended to take the Alexandria Original Ghost
and Graveyard Tour, but it was filled so we
opted for the Alexandria Footsteps to the Past
History/Ghost Tour instead. This tour
operates from March through November on Sundays through Thursdays at 7:00 p.m.
and Fridays and Saturdays at 7:00 and 8:30 p.m., and you can call 703-683-3451
if you have questions in advance. The one-hour tour concentrated on Alexandria's
early history and its ghosts with a walk through the Old Town ending in a
cemetery where the tomb of the unknown soldier of the Revolutionary War is
located. The tour went to most of the main historical sites in Alexandria. Our
guide was Alexandria born and bred so he knew the area and the history very
well, and we learned a good bit about the town and its role in the American
colonial and revolutionary era. The guide was also very interested in
parapsychology and offered a lot of information about it. Whether you believe in
ghosts or not, it's an interesting walk just from the history
standpoint.
Fredericksburg
Visit Fredericksburg
Stuff to do: Old Town Fredericksburg is
pretty and much like Old Town Alexandria. There are a lot of gorgeous houses,
and the main streets are William, Princess Anne, and Caroline. Many streets are
one way so finding a parking spot and walking around is a good idea. It's also
nice to take a walk to the river along Sophia Street. The Visitor Center at 706
Caroline Street is really informative with a helpful staff. Stop on Charles
Street to see the Mary Washington
House where George's mother lived. Kenmore
is a beautiful mansion and garden in the middle of town at 1201 Washington
Avenue. The grounds are lovely, and the plasterwork ceilings are amazing.
Fredericksburg is also the home of Belmont,
the estate of American Impressionist Gari Melchers and a gorgeous building with
great art. There are lots of small things to note along William Street, like a
former slave auction block and a random plaque that states a date and says that
nothing happened there at that time. If you like antiques, Fredericksburg has
tons of shops with friendly owners.
Folks interested in Civil War history
will want to visit the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County
Battlefields. The whole battlefield
area is really pretty, and the main one in Fredericksburg proper has some
walking trails and a short driving tour. The three other battlefields in the
area -- Chancellorsville, Wilderness, and Spotsylvania -- are okay, but only
Chancellorsville has a visitor center. The last two mostly involve driving
around various fields in the countryside. The battlefield area also includes the
Stonewall Jackson
Shrine at the site where the Confederate general
died.
Also in Fredericksburg is the University of Mary Washington
with its gorgeous campus and small, free-of-charge Ridderhof Martin Gallery
which houses some interesting exhibitions. The college campus is part of the
site of a Civil War battle called Marye's Heights.
Not far from
Fredericksburg is Ferry Farm,
George Washington's childhood home. His family moved there when he was six years
old, and he lived at Ferry Farm until he was a young man and moved to Mount
Vernon.
If you visit Fredericksburg in the fall, especially around
Halloween, you might enjoy a great Ghost Tour with a lot of history that's
organized by the Historic Preservation Club of the University of Mary
Washington. The tours are available every year for a few weekends before and
after Halloween.
Bars, pubs, and restaurants: A popular
coffee shop is Hyperion Espresso at 301 William Street, and a must-go is
Carl's
Frozen Custard at 2200 Princess Anne
Street. It uses original custard machines to make the stuff, one of only three
places in the U.S. with that distinction. It's regularly featured in the "Best
Ice Cream in the US." It's inexpensive -- most items are under $3. If there's a
long line, don't worry -- it moves very quickly. For lunch, stop at Goolrick's,
an original soda fountain/drugstore that's a Fredericksburg establishment. It's
simple and cheap and an experience. You can sit at the counter or at one of the
many tables. The menu is chicken salad, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,
BLTs, and the like, and the food is good. They sell vanilla Cokes and excellent
milkshakes. You can find Goolrick's at 901 Caroline Street. If Goolrick's is
filled up, Spanky's is a good sandwich place and popular with the college crowd.
The Virginia
Deli is also good for sandwiches. For a regular restaurant,
try Bangkok
Cafe on Caroline Street where you can choose the spiciness of
your meal or Roma 52
on Charles Street. Roma has excellent and not too expensive Italian food and is
family run. Ristorante
Renato on William Street is a more expensive, high-end place and
is a tad bit better but not by much. Sammy T's on Caroline is also a
good choice. It's veggie friendly and tasty. Up William Street toward the
university is a place called Jake and Mike's.
Check out fredericksburg.com
for more info about restaurants.
How to get there: If
you're heading down to Fredericksburg from the Washington, DC/northern Virginia
area, avoid Route 3 as much as possible due to its heavy traffic. For another
access point with a little bit less congestion, take Exit 133A toward Falmouth
off I-95 south just before the Fredericksburg exits. Go down Route 17 and turn
right onto Route 1. Take a left onto Princess Anne Street and watch for a sign
for the visitor center. Princess Anne will take you into downtown
Fredericksburg. You'll pass Carl's Frozen Custard on the way.
Trip
Report - Fredericksburg, Spring 2004
We made a day trip to
Fredericksburg on a Saturday, and unfortunately we started late so we were a bit
pressed for time. The directions given above are great for anyone heading south
from DC, and we avoided all the traffic around the shopping mall on Route 3. The
trip down I-95 took about an hour, and we arrived around noon with the thought
of eating at Goolrick's. It must be a good place for lunch because all the
counter seats and tables and chairs were filled. Instead of waiting, we found
another restaurant called Spirits on Caroline Street where we had excellent
wraps and wrolls. Yes, wrolls with a "w" - wraps are made of pita; wrolls are
made with tortillas. The grilled chicken and pesto wroll was very tasty, and the
vegetable and ham and cheese wraps were also pronounced to be very good. Service
was good, too, and the food wasn't expensive. The restaurant has wooden booths
with comfy cushions and an old metal ceiling.
The town of Fredericksburg
is pretty with old buildings and churches in a colonial style, and antique
stores abound. We agreed we'd like to return someday and check them out as well
as the town's historic sites, but our main interest on this visit was Civil War
history. We started at the Fredericksburg Battlefield Visitor Center where a
Park Service ranger led a short walking tour of the area near the Visitor Center
that saw the fiercest fighting. She did a great job of explaining how Lee's army
(South) had the advantage over Burnside's men (North) and the battlefield
maneuvers of the day. At one point about half the group played Confederates
while the others played Yankees, and we were able to see for ourselves exactly
how the terrain and manmade land features played their parts in protecting or
exposing each side's troops. After the tour we walked up the hill nearby for a
better view of the Confederate position and marveled again at the human toll in
the battles of this war.
We had picked up a brochure in the Visitor
Center that had a map of all four battlefields in the area so we followed the
suggested driving tour for the rest of the day, finishing the Fredericksburg
portion by driving south along the hillside where the Southern troops stood
their ground. We headed west to Chancellorsville on Route 3 and encountered the
shopping mall traffic, but after we were through that area, the roads were no
longer busy. Chancellorsville has a Visitor Center, too, with exhibits and a
movie. Since we were short on time, we didn't see the movie, but the exhibits
helped us to better understand the events that took place. We continued on our
driving tour of that battlefield and then headed further west to the Wilderness
Battlefield and southeast to the Spotsylvania Court House Battlefield. Unless
you're very interested in Civil War history (some of us were), you may want to
skip these areas since there's not much to see but open countryside with
historical markers. Virginia is pretty in April, though, with trees and flowers
blooming, and it's a nice time of year for a drive in the country.
We
ended our day at Carl's where we had the famous frozen custard which was very
good. Don't be put off by a long line at the window - it seemed like we gave our
order, and the ice cream appeared instantly. They definitely know how to do fast
service at Carl's! We returned to DC in a roundabout way due to car radio
reports of horrendous traffic on I-95 from Fredericksburg north to DC. We had
seen some of it on our way south, and a fierce debate ensued among us as to how
to return to the city. Two of us fought for Routes 17/29/I-66 heading northwest
and then east, one argued for going straight north on Route 1 with all its stop
lights, and one abstained. We used 17/29/I-66 and were back in DC in an hour and
15 minutes.
Manassas National Battlefield Park
Manassas National Battlefield
Park
The first battle at
Manassas, aka Bull Run, in 1861 was the first land conflict in the American
Civil War, and a subsequent battle occurred in the same area in 1862. A visit to
the combined battlefield makes for an easy afternoon trip into the Virginia
countryside from Washington, DC. Battle reenactments are held there from time to
time, and they're absolutely amazing. You have to remind yourself that they're
being staged and people aren't really fighting. The reenacters are friendly and
will answer visitors' questions and pose for photos. Some of them drive
thousands of miles to take part. Check the schedule of events on the park's
website if you're particularly interested in seeing a
reenactment.
Trip Report - Manassas National Battlefield Park,
2004
To get to Manassas National Battlefield Park from the
Washington, DC area, take Highway 66 west from Washington and follow the
brown-colored signs to the exit and battlefield. The drive takes about 40 - 45
minutes from Washington. We began our visit in the visitor center and checked
out the electronic narrated map to get an overview of the first battle of
Manassas/Bull Run. We then joined a very informative park ranger-led walking
tour of the central part of the battle, followed by a do-it-yourself one-mile
walking loop tour to see in detail the outer locations that were a part of the
conflict. Afterward we followed the driving tour mapped out in a brochure that
has stops at the sites important to the second battle of Manassas/Bull Run in
1862. There are restaurants nearby for lunch or dinner if you're
hungry.
